Chapter 161 A Chorus Across Eras: The Sea of ​​Stars

The heavy doors of the auditorium were slowly pushed open.

The wind and snow outside howled as they poured in, but no one felt the cold.

Because parked at the entrance were several Jiefang brand trucks.

In the truck beds, sides of pork were piled up like small mountains, their white fat dazzling under the snowy light.

Beside them were stacks of flour, crates of soybean oil, and walls of sweet potato vermicelli.

This visual impact was even more powerful than the televisions from moments ago!

"Participation prizes!"

The host roared,

"Everyone gets a share!"

"Manager Lin said there's a bit too much stuff."

"Those with flatbed carts, help each other out, otherwise you definitely won't be able to take it all in one trip!"

At this, the auditorium completely exploded.

"Long live Red Star!"

"Long live Manager Lin!"

The cheers almost lifted the roof off.

Lin Xi sat below the stage, looking at this group of people who usually calculated for ages over a few pounds of grain coupons.

At this moment, the light in their eyes was so bright, so burning.

It was the light of having confidence, of having something to rely on.

"Manager Lin! Give us a song!"

Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, and immediately the whole venue followed suit.

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The waves of sound grew higher and higher.

"Manager Lin! Give us a song!"

Lin Xi stood up with a smile.

He took off his somewhat thick work jacket.

Underneath was a simple white shirt, with two buttons undone at the collar.

He didn't decline, stepping onto the stage in a few strides.

The clamor gradually subsided.

Lin Xi walked to the corner, whispered a few words to the accordionist, and gestured a rhythm.

The accordionist tested a few notes, and a melodious yet firmly powerful melody began to flow.

As soon as the intro started, it carried a narrative sense that pierced through the years.

This wasn't any pop song from this era, nor was it a model opera.

Lin Xi held the standing microphone, his gaze sweeping over the faces below the stage that had been carved by wind and frost.

Li Jianguo was still fiddling with his certificate, Klaus was busy untying a red ribbon, Chen Xiaodong was grinning foolishly while holding his bicycle, and Elder Qian and Zhang Zhengguo sat in the front row, looking at him with gentle gazes.

Lin Xi closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"You are a fixed star in my heart."

"Guiding me forward without stopping..."

His clear voice traveled through the electric current, reaching every corner of the auditorium.

There was no complex arrangement, only the melodious accordion and Lin Xi's singing that seemed to pierce through time.

This song would be a household name in later generations, but in 1982, it was appearing for the first time.

The audience in the livestream instantly understood Lin Xi's intention.

[Holy crap! "Stars and Sea"! Streamer, you're cheating, this is a trans-temporal tear gas bomb!]

[These lyrics... are too perfect. Looking at those seniors in their old cotton coats and frost-bitten faces, I freaking can't hold it back!]

"The past journey was not a smooth path."

"Crossing through the crowds without ever slacking..."

The people below the stage fell silent.

They didn't understand pop singing styles.

But they understood the lyrics.

Every word felt like it was striking their heartstrings.

Weren't these lyrics singing about them?

It started from a single tent in the Gobi Desert.

It was every step this country and this nation had taken over the past decades, struggling through the mud and rebuilding upon the ruins.

"Always harboring expectations in the heart."

"All the setbacks and failures."

"Will eventually be blown into the dust by the wind..."

Li Jianguo stopped what he was doing and looked up.

He remembered the time they rushed to build the launch tower.

That night in the wind and snow at thirty degrees below zero, when everyone held hands to protect the concrete with their bodies.

It was just like this back then.

Though it was cold, their hearts were hot because they had expectations.

Because they had expectations, because they knew what they were doing.

The accordion's rhythm suddenly quickened, becoming impassioned.

Lin Xi opened his eyes, his gaze like a torch, his voice suddenly soaring, piercing straight into the clouds:

"Walking toward you with youth!"

"Crossing over the Stars and Sea!"

"Clad in starlight, racing to the exam with all our might."

"With far-reaching ambitions, unafraid of high mountains!"

Boom!

This line of lyrics was like a spark falling into a pile of dry wood, instantly igniting everyone's blood.

Stars and Sea.

For this group of aerospace workers, these four words were not just romantic.

That was their life.

It was the entire meaning of their existence in this lifetime.

It was the place they wanted to go even in their dreams.

"A hundred years of pride, looking at this world as an equal."

"Crossing mountains and seas to continue writing our passion!"

Lin Xi was almost roaring the song, using every ounce of his strength.

Through those pairs of slightly clouded eyes below the stage.

He saw the space stations of later generations, saw Chang'e flying to the moon, saw the Mars probes.

He wanted to plant that pride from the future.

Plant it in the hearts of these pioneers in advance!

Below the stage, Elder Qian's hands trembled slightly.

He took off his glasses and gently wiped the corners of his eyes.

"What a line, 'looking at this world as an equal'..."

The old man muttered to himself,

"We've struggled all our lives; isn't what we seek just to be able to look the world in the eye?"

"Isn't it just so we don't have to bow our heads?"

When the chorus rang out again, no one organized it, no one conducted it.

"Crossing over the Stars and Sea!"

Over a thousand voices converged.

There was the roar of Qin Opera, the softness of southern accents, and even Klaus's out-of-tune German-style Chinese.

The voices were rough, uncoordinated, and even a bit piercing.

But this was the most burning sound on this winter night in 1982.

The singing pierced through the auditorium's poorly insulated windows.

Carried by the biting Northwest wind, it drifted toward the distant launch pads, toward the pitch-black and profound night sky.

Above that night sky.

The stars twinkled, as if quietly waiting for the arrival of this group of people.

This scene was transmitted without reservation to the future through the livestream.

The livestream was completely overwhelmed, the comments so dense they blotted out the sky:

[Everyone stand up!!! Salute the ancestors!]

[Elder Qian is crying... My eyes are watering. Elder, please rest assured, decades from now, our space station is really in the sky!]

[The predecessors planted the trees and the successors enjoy the shade. Salute to these heroes who ate sand in the Gobi Desert! Without you, how could we have today's backbone!]

[Streamer, sing a few more lines for me! Tell them, this prosperous age is as you wished!]

[This prosperous age is as you wished!]

[This prosperous age is as you wished!]

[This prosperous age is as you wished!]

Countless comments frantically flooded the livestream, covering the screen completely.

Lin Xi stood in the center of the stage.

Looking at the forest of arms below the stage.

Then looking at the screen full of "Salute" comments in his field of vision.

On one side were the hot-blooded pioneers of 1982, on the other were the grateful descendants from decades later.

Time and space overlapped and blended at this moment.

He knew.

That golden age belonging to China's industry and aerospace.

That magnificent, passion-burning decade of the eighties.

In the singing of this night, the curtain had truly been raised!